howdy. i purchased a 1557 USSC wood/coal furnace, and reading this forum, hear it aint the best. could not keep the fire going. the feed door dampner was closed and the ash door dampner was all the way open. went to where i bought it, he said the chimney was sucking up too much hot air. said to only turn it one turn, thats it. i did, nothing . before i went postal and set fire to my house, i came here and found out to open the ash door right up to get it fired up. bingo, in business, BUT. the only way to keep it going was to leave ash door cracked open. now my question is; is it safe to keep this door cracked open? if not, what can i do? maybe try to install another dampner on the door, and how might i go about doing that? thank you for all the help so far, you guys are life savers!

my chimney is a 6" tripple wall stainless made by simpson, it is the dura plus all fuel type. yes, baro dampner is on there and working properly, level and plumb. i have no manual dampner on the chimney. the loading door dampner is the type that slides up and down, and has low medium and high labled on it, which i do have closed right down. i run nut coal in it, but im curious about the advantages of mixing it with pea coal, which i hear people do here. my doors close tightly, as far as i know. i did the whole business card thing and tried to slide it between the seal and the furnace, did not slide behind, so i should be good there. reading on here i kinda think that thats the biggest problem with these USSC furnaces is correct draft. thanks for all your insight and thanks in advance for a reply.

MudmanHow tall is your chimney?How do you know the baro is working properly?Stay away from the pea coal, not in that unit,it will choke it out on you at this point.Stove coal yes! Better idea! Get some to try!The chimney sets the draft! How the unit feeds air to the fire is another issue. An issue alot of us have gotten past and or found methods to correct.Check your PM

The first year I burned mine I used to crack the door open to get enough air to the fire.I drilled a 2-1/2" second hole in my ash door.I used a peice of sheet metal shaped like a teardrop with a 1/4"bolt and spring to add friction so it would stay where I set it.The 2nd year I bought some good coal(superior) and found I didn't need the 2nd hole all that often.I also had my oil furnace and coal furnace connected to the same chimney(6") and I think this was part of the problem with poor draft.This summer I changed my smoke pipe to 8" and split 6' to each furnace,The draft is MUCH better.You really need a manometer to see what kind of draft you have.These furnaces need a very good draft(.1 isn't to much).I tried some pea coal in mine and it didn't make much heat at all,I would stay away from that.Nut coal needs a good draft in these furnaces and from what I hear stove coal needs less draft.Are you following all the normal coal things like filling coal to the top of the firebrick and so forth.I drilled the 2nd hole in because I didn't want to go the route of a combustion blower.Let me know how you make out.DON

doin a whole heck of a lot better now. its about 55 or 60 degrees out today, rain, so i figured i would let it burn out and clean it. cause the back of the coal bed had gone out cause the coal was plugged up with ashes. so only the front was burning, probably was half my problem there. i also just got a ton and a half of stove coal, i am told it would burn better. i am gonna try the stove coal 1st, if it dont work i will probably put in another dampner in the ash door. i ll keep ya all posted with my progress, and thanks a lot

mudman wrote:so i figured i would let it burn out and clean it. cause the back of the coal bed had gone out cause the coal was plugged up with ashes. so only the front was burning, probably was half my problem there.

All fires will burn unevenly & build up with ash. You don't need to shut down to clean out your stove though. I run mine all winter without ever shutting down. (clean out the ash as part of your normal shake down procedure)

You will have to be aggressive with your shake down with that furnace.200-300 shakes per shake down.It might take 5 min, of shaking to get all the ash out with nut coal.I don't know if it will be any EZer with stove coal so let us know.DON

Quick question for anyone who can answer. I just installed a Chubby stove which a few friends of mine rave about. When I put it in a installed a baro damper for the first time. I have no idea how to set the baro damper. Different web sites talk about a meter, etc, to set it. I don't really want to go through all that and was just wondering if there is a medium measurement on which to set the counter weight off the plate and then go from there. Thanks for any input, Jeff

My method: I set mine, so the flapper was just starting to flutter, when I felt the stove was burning as hot, as I felt, was reasonable. "Reasonable" is the subjective term. One person might set it so the stove is red hot before it opens, while another might set it to open at an idle.

Hi Jeff, there is a manometer loaner program on the forum.. you can PM Matthaus and get on the list.. he'll explain the setup..

You can do a 'rough' setup like Dallas suggests,, with a hot fire burning, set the baro so it is just starting to 'work' or flutter.. then if the draft tries to get stronger due to high winds , dropping temperatures, the baro will limit this excess draft and the stove will continue to have the same combustion air, regardless of the weather changes..

The best way is with a manometer,,but a rough setting is better than nothing.. if you have a type RC baro, it has a V shaped bracket for a sliding weight. The bracket has two slots, one for vertical mounting of the baro damper one for Horizontal mounting.. and there are rough setting marks on the bracket to set the weight to get you in the 'ball park'.

ladies and gentlemen the furnace is working GREAT!!!! thank you everyone, especially charles, for all of your help. house gets up to 76 and the coal is only 2/3 from the top of the fireblock! hate to see what it does at full force. the stove coal mixed with the nut seems to work freakin great. the mourning i shovel on like a thire stove to 2/3 nut, seems to dampen down the heat better when we are not home. at night i do about a half to half combo, stove 1st then the nut. i have been shaking down more aggressive, better now. was afraid to be more aggressive, but im learnin. so again, thanks to all, and i will be on this forum looking at all the new posts! stay warm

Jeffb227 wrote:Quick question for anyone who can answer. I just installed a Chubby stove which a few friends of mine rave about. When I put it in a installed a baro damper for the first time. I have no idea how to set the baro damper. Different web sites talk about a meter, etc, to set it. I don't really want to go through all that and was just wondering if there is a medium measurement on which to set the counter weight off the plate and then go from there. Thanks for any input, Jeff

The Chubby is a great stove. I used one for 14 years back in Ma. Does it have an external shaker? If so check to see if it has a hole in the center of the grate that takes a pin from a cross bar under the grate going side to side of the basket. THis is the latest shaker system and works very easy. Mine didn't have this one. It had the older style. Larry Trainer the owner of Chubby rebuilds and sells parts resonably. I was at his place recently. Call him if you have questions. He is a pleasure to work with. Jim from Northern NH sent you.

As long as you have a halfway decent chimney you can run a coal stove. It doesn't matter if you start out with a wood fire or matchless charcoal ( I use wood, it's free) once you get it lit very well put 2- 3 inches of coal on the wood fire or red or ashy charcoal , leave the ash pan door open for about 5-10 minutes then close it with the vents wide open. After another 5-10 minutes the 3 inches of coal should be red, if not, wait till it is. When it is red fill your stove to the top of the firepot with coal, (nut coal works the best in a chubby), then close your vents to approx. 1/4 open and let it burn don't worry about the coal fire it won't smother, it will keep burning. Close the stovepipe damper about 90 percent of the way (don't worry it has holes in it to let the exhaust out). If you want the stove hotter open the vents on the ash door a little bit more.Doing it this way will make your fire burn evenly from the bottom up and you will be able to shake the ash nicely. After shaking, just keep the stove filled to the top of the firepot. You will be able to keep the fire going for weeks or even months. If you use stove coal you'll need to open the vents a little bit wider than with the nut coal. The only time your stove will burning red all the way to the top should be when it's abnormally cold out,otherwise you'll bake yourself out of the house and waste alot of coal.

mudman wrote:the coal is only 2/3 from the top of the fireblock! hate to see what it does at full force.

The amount of coal you have in there will not cause your stove to over heat. It will simply lengthen the burn time of your fire. (You regulate heat output by controlling the amount of air the fire gets, not the amount of coal. Coal burns differently than wood & needs a totally different technique) Fill the stove all the way up to the tops of the firebrick every time you reload it.